Surely all they need to do is add a few extra slots to the custom menu on the Fn button to easily make a massive improvement?

But you will notice that the Original NEX 5 only had three custom slots in its final firmware, the NEX 5N has 5 and the 5R has 6 - but I doubt 'memory' restrictions were responsible for not putting more slots in the Original NEX 5 nor the reason why the 5R only has 6 slots...

Also notice that the NEX 5R still has that annoying pre-flash, even pointlessly in Manual mode, which makes it near impossible to use for remote flash work (coincidence?) and Sony themselves offer no adaptor to allow this functionality. If you want it then you need to also buy a NEX 6, or an Alpha series camera (or go on Ebay and get a dodgy third party item)

What I'm saying is that I sincerely wish you luck with your endevour and hope Sony listen, but I suspect that the NEX 5 series interface is how it is because Sony want it that way (howerever misguided that might be), not for any other reason

We'll see. I confess I do hate it when companies of any sort design their products to be inconvenient to boost sales of a different model or make people upgrade every year. I so liked the 70s and 80s when things were built too last 5, if not 10 to 20 years. Most CRT TVs that people threw out when they upgraded to flat screens a few years ago were probably in their homes at least a decade or two, if not more. Same with cookers, microwaves - even cars!